Local authorities are being given new powers to act in the face of major incidents by the civil contingencies bill, now before parliament.

But the powers are no use without more money, according to Patrick Cunningham, president of the Emergency Planning Society, which represents councils and emergency services.

"As things stand we are not 100% prepared by any means to deal with a Madrid-type disaster," he told the BBC's Today programme. "Probably the main reason for that is that funding for local authorities' emergency planning has fallen from £24.5m in 1991 to £19m in the present day.

"That reduction has occurred despite the fact that in that time we have had to deal with the fuel crisis, foot-and-mouth, widespread flooding, train crashes and now, of course, we have this increased probability of some act of terrorism."

Patrick Mercer, Conservative homeland defence spokesman, agreed that more money was needed to put the bill's new powers into practice. "Our big problem as far as the opposition is concerned is that the powers are there. But there is nothing really to make them work," he said. "You have got the problem at one end of the spectrum with powers at the other end of the spectrum and a yawning gap."

Mr Mercer told Today: "The money that local authorities need to employ these powers is missing. The civil defence grant this year has been frozen at last year's level. Effectively therefore, it has been cut in real terms."

Mr Mercer called for a mass public information campaign coupled with training to prepare people for eventualities such as contamination.